The present invention generally relates to computer animation and, more particularly, to systems and methods for generating computer animations using game play data.
Advancements in computer hardware and software technologies in recent decades have made development and production of computer animations easier and faster each year. For an example, the first feature film produced entirely using a computer animation technology took a major animation studio several years of effort in early 1990's. (Mark Henne, Hal Hickel, Ewan Johnson, and Sonoko Konishi, “The Making of Toy Story,” COMPCON Spring 1996—41st IEEE International Computer Conference Proceedings, pages 463-468, 1996). In comparison, a computer animation film was produced by two students within seven months in 2006 as a thesis project (John Godwin and Stephen Payne, “A Tale of Rock: Production Diary,” www.idlecreations.com/taleofrock/, 2007).
Such advancements have been possible partly due to many attempts to provide easy to use tools for creating computer animations. However, one needs to learn to use the existing tools used in each production step of the computer animations. Typically, it takes at least two years in college or equivalent education to learn technological aspects of creating computer animations. Therefore, even with the advancements, required proficiency in technology and artistic talent to create computer animations can make the animation development process quite challenging to non-professionals in the computer animation field.